BMI

President Obama's BMI: 23.7 Upper range of normal.
Mine: 23.9 Even more upper range of normal than the president =(
L's: 25.1 In the overweight range.

I know I know BMI is not completely accurate. I discounted it when I was told during a physical while on the high school varsity cross country team that according to my BMI, I was a little heavy for my age and height. My response? Fuck you. I was running 20-30 miles per week and I'm "heavy"? What messed up test is that? The weakness of the BMI is that it does not differentiate between muscle's and fat's contribution to a person's weight. Thus, there are skinny people with normal BMI who are not healthy because they lack muscle mass.

Point is, I need to lose 15 pounds. *whining* But it's sooooo hard. To start exercising consistently I mean. I know it's a lot easier to do this if I do it together with someone. However, since XC, I'm really picky about my running partners. They have to have about the same pace as I do and be consistent in that pace, meaning not running fast then slowing down and running fast again. I guess it doesn't matter too much on the treadmill. Still, that is not the ideal place to run. I'm just being picky. I'd love to get to a point where I can go out on Saturdays and do a nice 10-12 mile run on the beautiful trails in San Diego while running 4-6 miles daily. It'll be relaxing.

I know I tried to start at the end of last year but the holidays totally ruined that. I'll start again tomorrow. And do it everyday. If not, what should the punishment be?

Strawberry post: the next day

 A bit more natural light. And it's raining beautifully, slowly saturating the soil. Nothing seems wilted, which means they are getting enough water. Can't wait till they start to grow and thrive, hopefully, in one week.

Strawberry project made

Today I accomplished my task of collecting my cultivars: eversweet (I wasn't actually out to collect that one), Chandler, and Sequoia. I picked up the latter at the Walter Andersen with LP. The customer service there was nice enough to bring some out from the back for me because it wasn't out on the table in front. Pictures as promised:

 

The green basket holds my one Chandler, clockwise are the twelve Sequoia and bottom six are Eversweet. 

Other materials:

A 14x14x10in pond basket for $8.89. I figured the more dirt it holds the better even though strawberries are supposed to have shallow roots. And lying on top is the thing I'm going to use to hang it for $1.59. Compared to making it myself, it was worth just buying it.

My work area for tonight (before it rains tomorrow):

 

(clockwise) The potting soil, Dr. Earth organic 5 (5-7-3), bucket with my homemade compost (which stunk to high heavens last year because it was too wet and is now totally perfectly normal looking and smelling), my basket with holes for the plants on the side, the strawberries, and the big pile of mixed soil + fertilizer (~1 cup). Not pictured, the coconut fiber.

The finished product: 

 

I planted the strawberries in three layers. First I filled the bottom with potting soil up to the bottom of the first row of holes. Then I stuck the plants through the holes. After the second one, I realized that I need the coco fiber to prevent the soil from falling out. So I had to pad all the plants on top and bottom with the fiber. Same with the next layer. The top was the easiest. However, as soon as I was done, I realized that I should have put the fiber all around the basket to prevent soil particles from falling out. *sigh* Live and learn.

L helped me hang it up. 

 

I mulched the top with some of the left over coco fiber and watered it the best I can. Depending on the amount of rain tomorrow, I might have to water more tomorrow. Hopefully all the plants will survive.

"wth" picture of the day, courtesy of L, titled "The Terror of Bettas"

Spring fever: strawberries

It's all Home Depot's fault. Well, I suppose if I am going to blame it on Home Depot, my brother shares some of the blame too. He's the reason I stepped foot into Home Depot. And of course, being me, I had to check out the garden section. And of course, being almost spring, there were tons of plants there. I walked all around the store. No orchids dying of thirst that needs rescuing. Check. What's this? Strawberry plants in a bag? Interesting. And thereon after, I could not get the image and its possibilities out of my head. I have conquered maiden hair fern, thriving now in its third or fourth year, surviving a buzz cut after a pot upgrade. Now, a new challenge lies ahead: making a productive strawberry patch/basket. A worthy cause considering just how disappointing most store-bought strawberries are. They are the epitome of false advertising. Think lady in red from afar, only to find it diseased and puckery up close. I forgot just how sweet and delicious strawberries can be until I had some the size of quail eggs in China. It struck me that natural strawberries are not supposed to be the size of a ping-pong ball or bigger. The better quality to select is sweetness, sorely lacking in most commercial strawberries (the only place I can think of to get that quality are farmers markets, if not then organic).

...all to justify my current obsession with strawberries. =)

At least I learned a few things about them. The most surprising: they are perennials, being fairly productive up to 3-4 years. I thought they were annuals. They certainly looked like it.

They are divided into three, or for the purpose of awesome California, two strains: June bearing and ever bearing (the other name for ever bearing is day neutral). For June bearing berries, the plants produce one big crop in June, good for jams, preserves, etc. Ever bearing or day neutral (so called because fruit bearing is independent on day length) produces pretty much continuously from early summer till frost or October for CA.

50 plants will produce enough berries for a family of four.

Cultivars good for SoCal:
Chandler (June bearing): large, juicy, flavorful.
Sequoia (June bearing): long fruiting season, flavorful and productive.
Seascape (ever bearing): large, flavorful

Can be purchased by bundles. ~$8-10/25-30 plants. Buy in Nov-January.

Do not bury the crown.

Require consistent watering. Fertilize using 10-10-10 fertilizer. Once before flowering starts, once more after fruiting is over, or before overwintering. Organic material. Slightly acidic. Or use tomato fertilizer.

So my plan for this year: plant between 10-20 plants in a basket and see what comes for it. Currently, I'm collecting my plants. I have six Eversweets and one Chandler (shh...L doesn't know about the latter).

Also allow me to recommend a few nurseries that I love.
First and foremost: City Farmer's Nursery Owned by family who lives on the acre and a half of nursery. They are incredibly knowledgeable and experienced with which varieties work in local areas. They also support organic farming and hydroponics. The place itself is amazing. They have fish, rabbits, chickens, doves, llamas, horse, geese, bees. They have what I would like to have in the future. All on 1 1/2 acres. I feel peaceful just walking around. They are also happy to order things for you.

Walter Andersen: 2 locations in SD. Again, family owned, I think. Incredibly knowledgeable and helpful staff. Ask them anything. They have quality plants and gardening tools. Plus, visit the Poway location, and they have an awesome track of miniature trains. They also have a rewards program called Hedge Funds. A little bit like what REI has.

Armstrong: Better than Home Depot? I don't know too much about them to say the truth, but they do have a large variety of plants.

There will be more posts, pictures included, about my strawberry project.

Catching up

On a meta note, February has not been a good month. For two weeks, my stomach was the pickiest organ. One little swallowed mouthful of raw pork because I was too lazy to get up and take one step to the trash to spit it out. One wrong food, the stomach will either reject it or give me heartburn for hours on end. I realized the best state for one's awareness of our innards is none. Just work. I don't care how, just be normal. Chinese New Year wasn't exactly great either. My dad's almost like another person. Scary. I feel bad for my brother for having to live in that environment. Hopefully, he'll be able to take something good away from it.

Yesterday, L and I went to play bingo with his mom at Viejas. I actually had lots of fun. These bingo players are scary in their intensity. The numbers show up on screen, the person calling it out gives everyone a few seconds and then officially calls it. One has to wait till she calls it before yelling bingo. The first round, I missed the third and fourth number simply because I couldn't keep up with the speed. L told me afterwards that I stressed his mom out because she didn't expect me to be so slow. =) What can I say? I'm not good at numbers. People are surprised by that, but I'm not. I have to say the number in my head. Plus, I'm too afraid of marking the wrong number because I can't erase it. So I take my time. It took a few rounds but I got the hang of it for the most part. I don't know how people do it with 24 squares since I'm barely keeping up with 12 and barely have any time in between to look for patterns.

During one round, I was one number away from blackout. 58. And of course, I didn't win. It was 24, then 59. Ah well. It was very exciting though waiting for the last number. I was not too disappointed. I saw it as $7 for about two and half hours of entertainment. Plus we got free food out of it. If I win something, great, if not, oh well, I had fun. There was this one jackpot game where if someone got blackout in 52 numbers or less, the prize money is $10K, 53 numbers or more, the money drops to $1000. Someone got bingo on the 53 number. We heard someone say something and people laughing at the 52nd number and figured out why when the 53rd number was officially called. It sucks for him, but funny too.

Alright. Anyway. February's almost over. I'm going to get back to a regular schedule of blogging because it's a whole new month.